After Tripling The Deficit, Obama Administration Trying To Change Its Tune On Deficits

Proof • November 5, 2009

Yesterday Obama told his economic advisory board that it’s “time to get serious” on budget deficits. Now one of his economic flaks is out repeating the message:

White House Budget Director Peter Orszag warned Tuesday that large federal deficits will eventually imperil the U.S. economy because they will lead to higher interest rates and more borrowing from overseas.
Orszag, in a speech in New York, said that deficits, expected to add $9 trillion to the current national debt of $12 trillion over the next decade, are “serious and ultimately unsustainable.”

The problem, as Gateway Pundit illustrates, is that back when the Obama administration was deficit spending in the name of economic “stimulus” the Obama administration and indeed this very same economic flak was telling us all that the deficits were sacrifices we had to make:

The question is, after tripling the deficit, is anyone really going to take Obama seriously when he says it’s time to “get serious” on deficits?
As James Pethokoukis pointed out yesterday, “Blaming Bush for economy is done as a political weapon. New polls show 49% blame Bush, 45% blame Obama. Give that number another year of high unemployment.”
Obama knows that he can’t blame Bush for the deficits any more. People just aren’t buying it (nor should they be). So now he has to pretend to be fiscally responsible. Which is going to be a tough row to hoe given the first 10 months of his administration.

Tags: Asshats, Domestic Issues, Politics

http://Array Mongol

Bambitized,

First of all please cite.

Secondly stimulus “benefits” assumption is based on Keynesian economics. Notice the words “likely”. Notice also who’s jobs stimulus “saved”. Teachers. No wait… it saved the jobs of people who are on a government’s payroll… aha it all makes sense now. Yes yes, according to the straw man fallacy you are tempted with right now, I must hate the teachers. Besides counting “saved” jobs multiple times or creating phantom jobs that no one can trace or counting pay raises as saves there is even bigger problem (see door #3)

Thirdly and more importantly stimulus assumed benefits are based on Keynesian economics.(as I mentioned above) Hmm think hard who first employed Keynesian economics on mass scale. So glad you asked. (Ok I know you have no clue, but let’s pretend you do, it makes me feel like I am not talking to the wall). Anyway it was FDR. And what were the effects of Keynesian economics then? Oh well they just finished a study in the bastillion of conservative thought – UCLA. The results? FDR’s policies (based on Keynesian economics), prolonged Great Depression by 7 years. Ouch, that means Bambi is the new FDR? ah.. yes. And in FDR defense it can be said that he had not had an example in front of him, but Bambi does. Move over Carter here comes the worst president in US history.
http://fu.com/ robert108

You lie, as usual, Hanni, when you attempt to comment on a subject about which you have only your list of Soros talking points, while having no real knowledge.

The only thing Obama’s insane spending and takeover schemes actually did was to prolong and deepen the recession by delaying the inevitable resolution of the Dem-caused mortgage market bubble. He has “saved” no one but himself and his nowhere career as a commie organizer.
He has made things worse, much worse.
http://fu.com/ robert108

Until he cuts his insane spending and makes meaningful tax rate reductions, while eliminating all taxes on capital formation, he is just flapping his lips. As a Marxist, he has no idea of how economic growth is created, since it involves free people making free choices without govt interference.
Hanni

â€¦not that long ago the U.S. economy was in free fall. Without the recovery act, the free fall would probably have continued, as unemployed workers slashed their spending, cash-strapped state and local governments engaged in mass layoffs, and more.

The stimulus didnâ€™t completely eliminate these effects, but it was enough to break the vicious circle of economic decline. Aid to the unemployed and help for state and local governments were probably the most important factors. If you want to see the recovery act in action, visit a classroom: your local school probably would have had to fire a lot of teachers if the stimulus hadnâ€™t been enacted.

The effects of the stimulus will build over time â€” itâ€™s still likely to create or save a total of around three million jobs â€” but its peak impact on the growth of G.D.P. (as opposed to its level) is already behind us. Solid growth will continue only if private spending takes up the baton as the effect of the stimulus fades. And so far thereâ€™s no sign that this is happening.

So the government needs to do much more.

Some say that the stimulus didn’t stop the free fall…..who you gonna believe, your lyin eyes or Rob?
sayanything-43

Obama and his Dem buddies tripled the deficit when they took over the Congress and wrote the 2008 budget. (Which Bush signed).

So Obama’s as responsible as any of them for the deficit going from 160 billion to 1.4 Trillion.
Hanni

Mongrel,

I really don’t care about your hatred of Keynesian economics. It’s irrelevant.

What got us out of the great depression was all the government spending to fund the war…..that’s right….government jobs.

You want to change the subject, but you won’t like where that road leads you.
sayanything-342

Handjob,

The economy is still crap and unemployment is edging 10%. Nothing is better right now and we have already seen how poor Obama is at predicting the future. This is Carter 2.0 all over again.

The preliminary estimate of the 3rd quarter’s Gross Domestic Product was announced Thursday, and it showed the economy growing at an annual rate of 3.5% from July through September, after four consecutive quarters of decline.

GDP growth was not used as the measure for timing the beginning of this recession. So why would it be used to time its end?

My take is that the economy is in no way healthy or even getting better. It is sputtering along more or less sideways at best. We are losing jobs , over 200,000 per month , and few in the private sector are bothering to invest in growth.

The recent GDP growth is due to government spending in the Cash-for-Clunkers program. Whhich is a great name for Obamas stimulus program as it is.
http://fu.com/ robert108

From FDR? His “New Deal” was the first “stimulus package”, wasn’t it? How did that work?

Clinton also wanted a “stimulus package”(not Monica’s stimulating his package, that’s another subject), which was defeated and soon after, the Republicans took back the House after forty years of Dem corruption.
President Bush also tried a “stimulus package” in early 2008, which also failed to do anything.

If Obama is really that smart, why did he try something that has an unblemished record of dismal failure?
sayanything-9974

That cutting the deficit doublespeak will never happen. A couple of months ago there was a huge deal made when they anounced a $100 million dollar savings on a trillion dollars spending package. That is six zeros and 2 orders of magnitude (mathematically speaking) away from having any significance. Give me $10,000 – but don’t worry I have discovered a way to save an entire $.01 cent. We were just told that he was going to fund Health Care Reform with $500 billion in savings -by eliminating waste and fraud. What is he waiting for. He should be going forward with that initiative regardless of the outcome on Health Reform. Unfortunately the Dems/Libs are proven and well known liars – so I won’t be holding my breath for any sort of reduction of the debt while these clowns hold the purse strings. If a Dem/Lib is speaking – rest assured he/she is lying. You can take that to the bank – do it soon while there are some left.
Hanni

You mean “after stopping an economic free fall and the worst recession after the great depression, Obama want’s to get serious about the deficit. Right?

Really, imagine the damage would really have caused the families who lost everything. We saw some of what happens to some families under that pressure. Daddy kills the entire family.

Others lose everything and end up homeless. But Rob rather see families lose their entire fortune, home, job and belief in the system than attempt a stimulus.

Because, it’s more important that a Democrat get trashed, than to stop the economic free fall.
sayanything-43

And just to be perfectly clear, Obama inherited his stimulus package.
Mongol

lol Bambitized, it’s good to see you in denial.
Change the subject? From your wishful ASSumption that stimulus works while the facts show otherwise? Why would I want to change the subject that shows you to be an illiterate bigot?
BTW “genius”, government spending during WWII had an economic multiplier .8. Do I need to explain to you what an economic multiplier is?

Next you’ll be saying that you don’t care about gravity.
Mongol

Bambitized,
Fact remains government spending does not improved the GDP but dampens it (at best .8 at worst no one knows). The hard data produced by “conservative ” Harvard and UCLA economists testifies so. The stimulus is based on government spending. If you are trying to tell us that this time it’s different, allow me to quote something Einstein reported said:”Insanity is doing the same things over and over again, expecting different results”. If you read the articles that I submitted in links you would see the explanation of details you seek. Instead you choose to project your ignorance on me. Your understanding of what drives the economy is based once again (huge shocker) on Keynesian economy (yeah yeah I must be a hater of it along with all those bigots at Harvard and UCLA) .But really should we be surprised of it coming from someone who thought that “What got us out of the great depression was all the government spending to fund the war”. Tell me bambitized do you also believe that the earth is flat?
Hanni

In your ignorance you neglected to refer to a dampener, and instead focused on the multiplier that you are probably too ignorant to explain in detail.

The results of winning the war is what allowed private companies to start being profitable in the rebuilding of all the cities and infrastructure that was destroyed, and our goods and services sold to them, because we took away their means to produce.

We don’t have that luxury now, although I am sure that is part of the reason why Bush wanted to invade so many countries.
Mongol

oh , we’ve got one. Bambitized how did he stop economic fall? Like FDR?
Mongol

Strange, no clowns on this post, stating that Bambi inherited the deficit from Bush. At least yet
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

after stopping an economic free fall and the worst recession after the great depression

Uh, he didn’t stop the recession.

SayAnythingBlog.com

After Tripling The Deficit, Obama Administration Trying To Change Its Tune On Deficits

Create a SAB Readerblog

Recent Comments